


Sinjoh

by porygonkin



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters: HeartGold & SoulSilver | Pokemon HeartGold & SoulSilver Versions
Genre: Canon Rewrite, Gen, Jouto-chihou | Johto, Rebirth, Ruins of Alph, Shinoh-chihou | Sinnoh, reinterpretation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-21
Updated: 2017-12-27
Packaged: 2019-02-17 18:46:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13083069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/porygonkin/pseuds/porygonkin
Summary: Dawn spent a year canvassing Sinnoh, compelled by the god of all Pokémon, looking for answers. As it turned out, answers were much, much further away than she could have ever imagined.





	1. Into the Ruins

**Author's Note:**

> Bit of canon reinterpretation/divergence, mostly just scaling up the climax of Pokémon Platinum to better serve the core story here, which is a reinterpretation of the Sinjoh Ruins Arceus event in HeartGold/SoulSilver. Story is split in two parts mostly for easier reading.

Dawn gazed up at the massive arches that signified the entrance to the Ruins of Alph. The Ruins were a centerpiece of Johto, one of the most mysterious places in the world. Recorded history did not contain a starting point for the Ruins - they were simply a fact, having existed as long as humanity could remember. Though they had been studied extensively, and though Researchers had recently been able to unlock the lower chambers and encounter the mysterious Unown, they had merely scratched the surface of the ancient, mystical monoliths of stone. The Ruins, it seemed, had plenty to know, but very little they wanted to tell.

 

The crimson, crystalline Poké Ball in Dawn’s hand shuddered, as though the being inside was straining to get out. Dawn tightened her grip.

 

“Not yet,” she said. “We need to make sure we’re in the right place. You trust me, right?”

 

As if in response to her inquiry, the Poké Ball settled, though Dawn could feel a gentle humming from it.

 

_Temperamental today,_ she thought.

 

As she strolled through the Ruins, taking in the sights of the weathered stone buildings that granted access to the lower chambers, she went over the letter that spurred her to fly to Johto and visit the Ruins in the first place. She’d received it two weeks prior, a plain envelope with “Dawn” scrawled in careful script across the center. The letter itself was short and to-the-point, imploring her go to the Ruins for “the answers” she sought. Though the letter and envelope were unsigned, she had a strong feeling regarding the author’s identity. If that woman was dragging her out here for nothing…

 

Dawn approached a small cabin at the back of the Ruins, a building that looked as though it could be blown over by a small gust of wind. In front of the door, she took a moment to admire the craftsmanship nonetheless; it looked as though it had been built by hand, using nothing but trees in the area, as if it were meant to be nothing more than another part of the Ruins. She could at least appreciate the effort.

 

With a light motion, she knocked on the door with her free hand, and stepped back, eyes cast towards the gray, cloudy skies. Quiet, foreboding weather. Dawn wondered if it might be an omen.

 

Before she could follow that train of thought too far, however, the door swung open, and a scruffy, haggard man in a dirty overcoat popped into the doorway. He gave Dawn a quick once-over, and furrowed his brow.

 

“Yes, Miss, unfortunately, we only do tours in the summer, so you’ll need to come back in about six months -“

 

“I’m not here for a tour.” She turned her hand, resting at her side, revealing the crimson Poké Ball, practically glowing in her hand. The man’s eyes widened.

 

“What -“

 

“We have other business in the Ruins, I think.” She held the ball up, resting it on her palm, and the ball cracked open of its own accord, the top flipping back as a gigantic burst of energy shot out of it, arcing into the sky and landing behind her. The formless energy grew and grew, seeming to radiate endlessly out of the Poké Ball, until it reached a high about double that of Dawn’s own, coalescing into an imposing quadrupedal shape. The man’s jaw dropped as he watched, unable to form any words in response.

 

The light faded, and the large Pokémon took shape. The man could not believe his eyes, staring at Dawn, whose expression was that of mild impatience over the man’s reaction.

 

The Pokémon arced its head down, its entire body glowing with a pure white sheen. Blazing red eyes, matching the color of its container, seemed to peer into the man’s very soul as the Pokémon’s head came to rest about a foot above Dawn’s shoulder. She reached up and, with a gentle touch, stroked the side of it.

 

Arceus.

 

“I - I - oh, my lord…” the man sputtered, words absolutely failing him as he took in the magnitude of what he was witnessing. But before he could form even one question, an elderly man roughly pushed him out of the way, stepping outside the house. A small Abra followed close behind.

 

“Enough of the gawking, you blubbering fool,” he snapped. The elderly man gazed up at Arceus, who seemed to have quickly lost interest, now looking around and taking in the Ruins.

 

“Ah, you’ve been here before, haven’t you…?” he said. “Truly fascinating. My lady, I’ve been expecting you.”

 

Dawn shrunk the Poké Ball down and stuffed it into one of the interior pockets of her jacket. “Have you? Were you the one who called me here?”

 

He shook his head. “No, no. I am but a courier for you, to get you where you need to go. We have no business with the Ruins today. Well…not these ones, anyway.” He chuckled to himself, at a joke only he understood. “Please follow me. We will need to depart from somewhere very specific.”

 

Brushing gently past Dawn, and being very careful not to touch Arceus, the old man made off towards the northeastern ruins.

 

Dawn followed behind him, hands in her jacket pockets, contemplating what she could possibly be doing here. The Ruins were ancient and mysterious, that much she knew, and Arceus was both of those things as well. But that was were she felt the comparisons ended. Johto and Sinnoh were regions heavily rooted in spirituality and mythology, but their myths and legends seemingly had no overlap, nothing to do with each other. And yet…

 

She glanced over her shoulder to check on Arceus. The very notion of needing to keep an eye on the supposed god of all Pokémon seemed ludicrous, but Dawn had been wary of the being since the day it showed up outside of her childhood home, terrifying her mother, the very same day she conquered the Sinnoh Pokémon League. She frequently wondered what its motives behind becoming her companion were, what sort of plans it might have in mind for her.

 

Arceus seemed uncharacteristically restless. The Pokémon usually showed nothing even remotely resembling emotion - Dawn often wondered if it was even aware of its surroundings at all, being a creature so powerful, so imposing, that nothing in the mortal world could hope to harm it. Its mind could be anywhere, at any time, and Dawn would likely never know. In their travels across Sinnoh in the past year, Arceus rarely ever interacted directly with anyone, including Dawn herself. All it did was guide her aimlessly across the region, perpetually seeming to be in search of something it never found. Dawn had the sneaking suspicion that this chase would be different, as she saw Arceus look all around, craning its neck to take in every crack, every carving, every speck of dirt in the Ruins.

 

The elderly man was silent as he led Dawn and Arceus to the chambers below the buildings of the Ruins. He brought Abra to his side as the group descended into the darkness of the chamber, preparing to light the chamber with Abra, but stopped as he took notice of the glow that Arceus emitted, lighting the chamber up sufficiently on its own.

 

“Now that’s convenient,” he said to himself, chuckling. Dawn ignored him, instead looking over the heavily-carved walls of the chamber. Images of Unown were everywhere; it was unsettling. It felt as though they were pulsing, almost like they were alive, and Dawn was certain that their eyes were moving, locked onto her and Arceus as they made their way to the center of the chamber.

 

“Ah, yes, here we are. This should be enough energy.”

 

“Sorry, what was that?” Dawn said, frowning. The old man chuckled again, stroking his beard.

 

“Well, we’re on our way to another set of ruins, far away from here, child. But it’s very difficult to pinpoint via teleportation - something about the temple there scrambles the signal, so to speak. But down here, in the Ruins, you can follow the signal from here to there. It’s like a string connecting the two places. And my, my, the Ruins are vibrant today. Perhaps because of our special guest…” He gestured at Arceus. The Pokémon did not respond to his suggestion, but was instead staring intently at the Unown symbols directly in front of them. Though most of them were arranged in a random order that didn’t spell anything out, there were six Unown right in front of them on the wall that spelled out a very conspicuous word.

 

Sinjoh.

 

“Abra, if you please.”

 

The Abra floated in front of him, between the elderly man and Dawn, and its eyes suddenly opened, glowing bright purple. Dawn felt herself being yanked forward; her vision blurred, and she felt a sudden wave of nausea that she struggled to keep down. When her eyes refocused, she, the man, the Abra, and Arceus were all outside in the snow. Though there was no indicator anywhere she could she, she intuitively felt that they were now far away from Johto, perhaps even far away from her home of Sinnoh.

 

“Welcome, milady, to the Sinjoh Ruins.”

 

The name rung a bell in Dawn’s head, though it was faint and fuzzy. Something Cynthia may have said to her, perhaps, in the wake of her winning the title of Champion in Sinnoh. A temple whose purpose was not clear, though it was at least tightly connected to Arceus and its first children - the creation trio, Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina.

 

She shuddered. Just thinking of those names brought up unpleasant memories. That was all in the past, though, and she pushed those to the back of her mind as she took a look around the area. It was mostly heavy flurries of slow, reducing her field of view to just a few feet in front of her, though she thought she could see the faint outline of the temple, and a cabin a few hundred feet in front of it, the cabin’s lights cutting through the murky snow.

 

“Couldn’t have been more accurate with the teleport…?” Dawn muttered, as she began trudging through the snow to the cabin. Arceus followed a few feet behind, though she could not hear it moving, and it likely wasn’t even leaving marks in the snow. Just two of the being’s many unsettling traits that Dawn had adjusted to in the year she’d been traveling with it.

 

When she finally reached the cabin and jumped through the door, Dawn practically collapsed on the ground, relieved that she could warm up again. The man and his Abra followed close behind, and Arceus brought up the rear, its yellow ring folding up to its sides in order for it to fit through the doorway. Dawn took a moment to brush some snow off of Arceus, peering around at their new surroundings.

 

The cabin was mostly bare, with the layout of a studio apartment; kitchen in one corner, bathroom door in another, a table and several chairs in the center. What appeared to be an inflatable mattress was rolled up and propped against the back wall. This was not a cabin meant for long-term habitation, if it was meant to be lived in for any period of time.

 

At the table was the familiar face Dawn expected, sipping hot chocolate from a mug, several papers spread out across the table in front of her. They seemed to be diagrams and research papers, referencing both the Ruins of Alph and the Sinjoh Ruins, along with sketches of…the creation trio?

 

She shuddered, a reaction unrelated to the winter winds outside.

 

The woman at the table stood up to greet Dawn, hand outstretched.

 

“Dawn. It seems you received my letter.”

 

“Cynthia.” Dawn looked down at Cynthia’s gesture of welcome and ignored it, hands firmly stuffed in her pockets. Arceus leered down at the former Champion, standing just behind Dawn. Cynthia dropped her hand to her side and looked up at the legendary Pokémon, a small smile on her face.

 

“It is…truly as beautiful as I remember,” she said, a hint of longing in her voice. “It’s lovely to see it in better circumstances than before.”

 

“Don’t remind me,” Dawn muttered, her head retreating into her scarf. Cynthia looked for a moment as though she wanted to inquire about what Dawn meant, but let it go, and returned to the table. “Please, have a seat, have a drink. We should wait out the flurry before we go to the temple.”

 

Dawn plopped down onto the chair across from Cynthia, releasing a deep sigh as her hands warmed up from the hot mug in front of her. Despite being outside for just a few minutes, it felt as though the cold had sunk into her bones. This was a strange place, colder even than Sinnoh in the dead of winter, and there seemed to be something in the air - a silent buzzing, something that resonated in her chest.

 

Behind her, Arceus had folded its legs and was resting on the ground near one of the windows, looking, for the first time Dawn could remember, like a normal Pokémon. Its eyes were focused intently on something outside in the blizzard - the temple, perhaps, as it was in that direction.

 

“So why are we here, Cynthia?” Dawn asked, turning her focus back to the woman in front of her. She never really liked Cynthia; she always gave off an air of smug knowingness, as though she took a great deal of pride in feeling superior compared to everyone else around her. It was especially maddening whenever the topic of Sinnoh’s mythology was raised, as Cynthia was lauded as one of Sinnoh’s greatest experts on the topic, and she took every opportunity she got to flaunt that in front of people. It gave Dawn great satisfaction, then, to be the one that ended Team Galactic’s catastrophic meddling with the creation trio, and her subsequent conquering of the Elite Four and Cynthia herself, even if it came with heavy, heavy baggage for Dawn in the aftermath.

 

“The letter said we needed to go to the Ruins of Alph for ‘answers.’ What answers can this place provide?” Dawn continued, after taking a sip from the mug of hot chocolate. Cynthia gave that infuriating smirk as she slid forward the packet of documents she had been consulting before Dawn got there.

 

“This place very much reminds me of home, Dawn,” she said. “You may think there’s not much to it, because the main attraction is just the temple. But the temple is truly a work of art, a gorgeous testament to the power of collaboration. You see, this temple was founded thousands of years ago, by adventurers from both Sinnoh and Johto. They made their way to this area and met each other, spent time together, got to know each others’ cultures, myths, and legends. The two groups gained a deep understanding of one another, and, with their myths and legends in mind, they set out to build a temple in commemoration of both regions. That’s why the temple contains elements of Sinnoh architecture as well as Johto architecture - it’s meant to represent the union of the two regions, stemming from those two groups all those years ago.”

 

She reached over to shuffle through the pile of papers and brought one in particular to the top - a diagram of some sort of ritual stage, in the shape of a triangle.

 

“But I think there’s a higher purpose to this temple. And it relates to Arceus.”

 

Dawn stared down at the diagram, trying to decipher what Cynthia meant. The points of the triangle each contained a circle - one pale blue, one pink, and one blood red. A pointed tip on each circle pointed to the center of the triangle, containing a small white circle. The runes within the triangle seemed to be for some sort of ritual, and Cynthia’s statement that it related to Arceus could only mean one thing.

 

“These circles…they represent the creation trio, don’t they?” Dawn said, her voice wavering at the thought. This was not something she was in the mood to relive.

 

“Researchers didn’t gain access to this platform until the Spear Pillar incident last year,” Cynthia continued. “We’ve known about the Sinjoh Ruins for ages, but most of us had written it off as a simple monument to Sinnoh and Johto. But when Giratina consumed Dialga and Palkia, and when you and Arceus disappeared into the Distortion World, an earthquake at the Ruins dislodged a giant slab that hid a passageway deeper into the temple. We couldn’t detect it before, not even with Pokémon. That’s when the researchers stationed here found the stage and named it the Mystri Stage.”

 

Cynthia pointed at each of the circles within the triangle’s points. “I believe that this platform was built by the Sinnoh contingent as a failsafe, in case the creation trio was ever wiped out. Now, I understand that that sounds like an outlandish concept, but, well…in any case, the chamber must have been sealed, to only be opened in the event that a new creation trio was needed.”

 

Dawn leaned back in her chair, barely able to process what Cynthia was telling her. She’d thought that the Spear Pillar fiasco was permanent - Dialga, Palkia and Giratina all gone forever, wiped out by Cyrus’s hubris and Giratina’s lust for power. But now, Cynthia was telling her that they could be resurrected?

 

“How? How could they have possibly built this and known it would work?” she said in disbelief.

 

Cynthia flipped through some of the other pages, and pulled out a sheet from the pile, handing it to Dawn. “The three circles - they’ve got pieces of the three orbs embedded in them. Adamant, Lustrous, Griseous. We know that these orbs contain bits of the genetic material of the creation trio, and they individually amplify their respective Pokémon. So, maybe, using all three of them can help Arceus summon the power it needs to recreate the creation trio on this stage.”

 

Dawn stood up from the table, diagram in hand. “Maybe we should consult the Pokémon that’s going to do this, instead of making decisions for it.”

 

She walked over to Arceus, whose attention was still on the temple outside, and knelt down next to it.

 

“Is this why we’ve been traveling across Sinnoh for so long?” she asked, gently placing a hand on the Pokémon’s back. “To figure out how to get to this place? You might not have even known where it was. You’ve been detached from this world for so long, after all.”

 

Arceus closed its eyes, and Dawn shuddered as she felt the Pokémon reach out to her, on a primal, wordless level. She took in the message, nodding slowly as she processed it.

 

“Arceus…doesn’t remember,” she said. “It did these things, created the original Pokémon, millennia ago, and considered its work done after that. It’s been so long since it’s had to create life, and it used up a significant amount of energy against Giratina. But…but it thinks that this Stage can help it. Focus the energy it still has.”

 

Dawn’s brow furrowed as Arceus communicated further. “I think that Arceus knew about this Stage, but it was fuzzy, for some reason. Like it wasn’t meant to know. To think that anything could be hidden from Arceus…we’ve spent a year canvassing Sinnoh, and it turns out that the answer wasn’t in Sinnoh at all.”

 

She pulled her hand away and stared at the Pokémon beside her. “That’s…that’s why you came back to me, after the Distortion World? You never told me what we were searching for.”

 

For a moment, Arceus just stared at Dawn, unblinking, unmoving. Then, almost imperceptibly, it nodded, and Dawn could’ve sworn she saw a hint of…remorse? Sorrow? Something was there, in its eyes. But as fast as it came, it was gone, and Arceus shifted its weight to stand up. Dawn slid back out of its way, trying to process what Arceus had just told her.

 

Ever since the Pokémon appeared in front of her home after her conquest of the Elite Four, she’d felt different. Almost hollow. She and Arceus trekked across Sinnoh with purpose, but without Dawn understanding that purpose. Arceus rarely spoke to her, rarely communicated at all, in fact. She simply felt compelled to help Arceus find whatever it was looking for. It was a strange feeling, one that she hadn’t been entirely comfortable with for a while.

 

Now, however, a warm feeling in her chest was growing. Finally, after all this searching, they were on the verge of a real breakthrough. If the Sinjoh Ruins and its Mystri Stage could really aid Arceus in resurrecting the creation trio…

 

“Dawn.”

 

She snapped back to reality when Cynthia called out to her. Arceus stood at the door, looking back at the two of them. It seemed that the flurry had broken enough to allow them to travel to the temple itself, and confirm Cynthia’s hypothesis.

 

“Yeah, yeah, give me a second,” she replied. She pushed herself up, smacking her face lightly a couple of times to refocus, and joined Arceus at the door, Cynthia following close behind.

 

She could only hope the ruins would yield their secrets.


	2. Rebirth

The cold burst of wind that greeted them upon opening the door bit at Dawn’s face, but she was thankful that the snow had mostly stopped falling, allowing them to clearly see their destination several hundred feet down a narrow pathway, lined by large hills on either side. The vast expanses of snow in every direction made the area of the Ruins feel timeless and placeless, as if they’d been teleported to an entirely different dimension. Dawn had had enough dimension-hopping for a lifetime.

 

Cynthia led the way to the temple, followed by Arceus, with Dawn bringing up the rear. The weather, now that it had slowed to just the wind and a very light snowfall, had a calming effect on her nerves. Growing up in Sinnoh, the ubiquity of snow and cold weather instilled a permanent nostalgia for snowfall, and she was relieved to finally feel something like that again. Perhaps Cynthia was on to something; the Ruins were starting to feel a little bit like home.

 

The great maw of the temple towered over the trio as they reached it, a marvel of ancient engineering. It was far larger than any of the Ruins of Alph, braced against the steep hills on either side. Dawn could now see that the temple itself was built into a massive hill, its peak difficult to discern in the snowfall. Carvings of the Unown lined the temple’s entrance.

 

“Are you ready, Dawn?” Cynthia asked. She’d asked the question far too late for it to matter. Dawn merely nodded in response when Cynthia looked back at her. She reached into her coat and dug around, apparently trying to find a light, but was stopped by Arceus’s approach into the temple, its body now glowing with a soft, bright light. The Pokémon moved with purpose, stopping only briefly to look back at Cynthia and Dawn, wordlessly urging them to hurry up and follow it in. Dawn had never seen it so antsy and impatient; perhaps it could sense something in the temple. Maybe there was something to Cynthia’s dusty old myths after all.

 

For all its mystery, however, the Sinjoh Ruins were remarkably plain, at least towards the entrance. The main hallway, though dimly lit by Arceus, contained nothing but runes along the walls, the same style as the Unown in the Ruins of Alph. There were branching paths off of the main hallway, but Arceus ignored each of them, and Cynthia indicated that the Mystri Stage was at the very back of the ruins, at the end of the main hall. The stillness in the air made Dawn uneasy; the endless depth of the darkness in each branching path intimidated her. She was reminded of the Distortion World and its disregard for comfort.

 

The glowing figure of Arceus ahead of them did nothing to alleviate her anxiety. Though she tried to suppress it, Dawn’s mind flashed back to the scene in the Distortion World, Arceus smiting its most unruly child, the enraged, out of control Giratina doing everything in its power to fight back, to stay alive. Arceus had glowed in this same manner as it cast its Judgment upon Giratina. Dawn could still hear the feral screech as the judgment tore Giratina in half down the middle, its body dissolving into nothing but shadowy residue as Arceus wiped it from existence, unmaking its beloved creation.

 

Dawn shuddered. She could feel a cold sweat coming on. The walls felt as though they were beginning to close in around her, compressing her chest, restricting her breath. She fell to her knees, clutching her chest, panting, gasping for air.

 

“Dawn?” Cynthia whirled around to face her, and immediately dropped to her side, her hand rubbing Dawn’s back. Arceus stopped as well, observing from a distance.

 

“Dawn, what’s the matter?” Cynthia said, her voice low and soft, the sort of tone a mother would use with her child. Dawn leaned closer to Cynthia despite a desire to protest at her seeming condescension, grabbing at her arm for stability.

 

“No, I’m fine, I just, I…” She stopped to compose herself, taking in a deep, slow breath. “I just don’t…this place feels like…the other place.” She didn’t elaborate further; she couldn’t. The very thought of it made her chest constrict further.

 

Cynthia gently held Dawn by the elbow and pulled her to her feet, leaning her against the wall. “Catch your breath. We’re not in any hurry.”

 

Dawn stared at the ground for a minute or so, her breathing stabilizing. The panic was subsiding; there was nothing to fear. She looked to Arceus, still silently watching the two of them from further down the hall, its expression unreadable as usual. Just the knowledge that it was there, that Arceus would protect her, was enough to wind Dawn back down. Everything would be alright.

 

She pushed off the wall and shrugged off Cynthia’s grip.

 

“I’m fine. Let’s keep going,” she said, continuing down the hall. Arceus’s gaze lingered on her for a moment, but it seemed satisfied with Dawn’s condition, and turned around to continue walking.

 

The rest of their short journey through the Ruins was in silence, and soon the unending darkness ahead of them resolved into a giant doorway, easily twenty feet in height. Rubble from the collapse of the entrance still framed the doorway, emblazoned with worn-out carvings of Unown. Dawn knelt down to examine a few of them, running her fingers along the inscriptions.

 

“The slab keeping the doorway shut had a large message on it, sort of a record of who the builders were, and the purpose of the temple,” Cynthia said as she stared up at the top of the doorway. “An eternal monument to the cooperation of two regions…and a fail-safe in case the god of all ever needed it.”

 

Arceus entered the Mystri Stage chamber, having run out of patience for Dawn and Cynthia’s musings. The two of them quickly joined it, watching in awe as the Mystri Stage itself began to glow and pulse in response to Arceus’s arrival. Just as Cynthia’s diagram showed, there were four circles, each representing one of the creation trio, with one representing Arceus at the center. Dawn could hardly believe her eyes; she couldn’t imagine how the Sinnoh and Johto adventurers could have built this on their own.

 

Dawn attempted to step onto the Mystri Stage to get a better view of it, but an invisible force kept her from moving towards it. She looked around, trying to figure out the source of it, and realized that Arceus was holding her back, having already stepped onto the Stage, just outside of its own circle.

 

“Probably best that we keep our distance while this happens,” Cynthia said, grabbing Dawn’s arm and pulling her back further. Dawn looked over to Arceus, who gave a slow nod. She stopped pulling away from Cynthia’s grip and stepped back.

 

With the two of them out of harm’s way, Arceus stepped into the center circle.

 

Immediately, the intricate lines across the Stage lit up, emanating outwards from Arceus to reach the three circles of the creation trio, lighting them up in their signature colors. Arceus braced itself, seemingly in reaction to the energy pouring into it from the Stage, causing it to glow significantly brighter. Its yellow ring because to pulse and fluctuate between countless colors.

 

Dawn pulled at her jacket, nervous. Arceus seemed…perhaps not distressed, but certainly not used to whatever energy it was experiencing. This trip had shown her more than she could have ever expected from the god of all Pokémon; it made her question how much she really knew at all. Perhaps her eyes had been shut this entire time.

 

Arceus reared back on its hind legs, kicked its front legs out, and let out a primal, timeless screech, its head thrown back, eyes pointed to the sky. In response, the walls began to glow, and countless Unown poured out, the Ruins’ glyphs coming to life before their very eyes. Cynthia winced and crouched down as the Pokémon flew by her. Dawn didn’t move an inch, unable to tear her eyes away from the spectacle unfolding before her.

 

The Unown descended upon Arceus, still kicking its legs, whipping its head around. They circled around it, forming a dense sphere, the entire unit glowing alongside Arceus. As the circling reached a fever pitch, Arceus let out another screech, and Dawn’s vision was suddenly filled.

 

Three spheres - blood red, pale pink, baby blue. Arceus’s face, its bright red eyes glowing against the pitch-black night. Nebulas, faraway galaxies, the same color themes as before. A sigil, growing outwards, one circle, then three, then eight, a triangle with three circles at its points, the pattern repeated until the whole of the Mystri Stage was in front of her, with Arceus at the center. Dawn could barely handle it - she felt as if her mind were on the verge of breaking, being stretched and torn in ways she couldn’t comprehend.

 

Images flashed across her eyes, under the superimposed Mystri Stage. Places all over the world - not just in their continent, not just their planet, but _everywhere_ , from Johto to the far reaches of the Solar System. They flashed faster and faster, until they were a blur of color and shape. Dawn screamed.

 

And then, it all faded away, and Dawn fell backwards, landing right on her rear, staring at Arceus and the Unown, still on the Mystri Stage. Next to her, Cynthia was unconscious.

 

The Unown’s mad spinning had slowed down significantly, settling into a lazy rotation. Arceus stood in the center, on all fours, its face as calm as ever. Dawn made eye contact with it, and the Pokémon, without moving, turned her attention to the three points of the Stage.

 

An orb floated above each of the creation trio’s sigils, glowing with the faint outline of the respective sigil’s color. The orbs pulsed and flickered, affected by each of the trio’s affinity - one slowed down and sped up at random, one seemed distorted, as if being viewed through a frosted window, and one was covered by a dark, paradoxical matter.

 

The creation trio, reborn.

 

Arceus reared back once again, and the Unown revved back up into a frenzied spin. Dawn braced herself, and Arceus let out one more screech, this one sending out a physical shockwave that cut through the three orbs, splitting each of them across the middle.

 

The orbs cracked open like eggs, and out of each one dropped miniature versions of the creation trio. Dawn was awestruck and horrified - it felt surreal to see such powerful, imposing Pokémon in such small forms, but the sight of Giratina made her hyperventilate.

 

The three Pokémon began to grow and swell, squirming in the telekinetic grasp of their master as Arceus began to age them up. Soon, they had reached full size once again. Dialga roared, its flailing rapidly speeding up and slowing down as its powers developed. A distortion effect grew around Palkia, causing a sense of vertigo as she watched. In the back, Giratina fluctuated rapidly between its Origin and Altered Formes, its legs growing and receding over and over again, wings splitting and recombining.

 

Arceus slammed back down onto its front legs, and its three children turned inward towards it. Arceus looked between them, its head turning to focus on each individually. The Unown dispersed, their job done, receding back into the walls of the Ruins.

 

Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina roared in unison, each appearing to try and break free of Arceus’s grasp. But this time, Arceus would not fall. Rejuvenated by the energy of the Mystri Stage, it exerted absolute control; the world would only continue to turn if Arceus wished it so.

 

Arceus locked eyes with Dawn. Time seemed to come to a stop between them, and Dawn saw something she hadn’t seen before, once again. Arceus seemed to be asking for permission. For what, Dawn couldn’t know for sure. But as she looked at the creation trio, rebelling and fighting against Arceus like children, she understood, and nodded to Arceus.

 

In response, Arceus reared back one final time, and let out a screech that seemed to rend time and space itself. A portal opened underneath it - to the Distortion World, perhaps - and Arceus, dragging its unruly children with it, descended into the portal, disappearing in a flash.

 

And with that, it was over.

 

Dawn took a few minutes to catch her breath, struggling to comprehend all that she’d seen. Arceus was gone, as were the Unown and the creation trio. The Mystri Stage had returned to its dingy, dusty original state. It was as if Arceus had never been there.

 

In the center, where Arceus stood, however, Dawn noticed a faint red glimmer. Tentatively, she put one foot on the stage, and when she wasn’t obliterated by raw energy, she stepped all the way onto it and walked to the center, kneeling down to examine the object left behind.

 

A crimson red, crystalline Poké Ball.

 

Furrowing her brow, she patted her jacket, and sure enough, Arceus’s ball was gone, seemingly moved by Arceus to the center of the Stage. She picked it up. It felt light, far lighter than it ever had, like it was just a regular Poké Ball, and not a vessel for a deity. She pressed the center button, the top flipped back, and…nothing. Tears welled up in her eyes, and an emptiness settled into her chest.

 

_“Dawn.”_

 

Dawn’s eyes widened, and she whipped her head around to try and find the source of the voice. She knew that sound.

 

_“If you need me, I am here.”_

 

The voice echoed and faded away. Dawn looked back down at the ball in her hand, now closed. It felt the same, but for some reason, it seemed to glisten just a little bit more. She wiped her face on her sleeve and smiled a little.

 

As she stood back up and turned back to the entrance, Dawn saw Cynthia groaning and pushing herself to a sitting position, rubbing her head.

 

“What the hell…?” Cynthia said, checking her hand for blood. “What…what _was_ that?”

 

Dawn stepped down from the Stage and held a hand out to pull Cynthia back to her feet.

 

“That was…Arceus, I suppose,” Dawn replied. “At its full power.”

 

Cynthia rubbed her temples, groaning again. “It knocked me the hell out. That scream…the power behind it is unimaginable.”

 

Dawn put an arm around Cynthia’s shoulders and guided her out of the temple in silence, mulling over what they’d seen. For the first time since Arceus re-appeared to her, in front of her home the year before, she felt…warmer. More in control. Though Arceus’s disappearance left her distraught, she felt as though a massive burden had been lifted off her shoulders at the same time.

 

In the cabin, Cynthia probed Dawn repeatedly about exactly what she’d seen. Dawn found that much of it had been incomprehensible, nothing but a mishmash of color and shape in her memory, finding nothing meaningful in any of it. Cynthia, regardless, recorded every detail, adding it to her extensive set of notes.

 

An hour later, Dawn prepared to be teleported back out of the Ruins, carefully pocketing the ball in her inner jacket pocket.

 

“Are you coming?” she said to Cynthia.

 

“No, not yet…” Cynthia replied, poring over her notes. “I’ve got some business left over. Don’t worry about it.”

 

Dawn merely shrugged. It wasn’t her problem any more.

 

The elderly man and his Abra brought Dawn back without comment, depositing them back in the basement of the Ruins of Alph. The man bid Dawn a cordial farewell, showed her the exit, and returned to Sinjoh. Dawn emerged from the Ruins to find that it was now night time, the sky cloudless and unblemished. An endless canopy of stars stretched across the sky above Dawn’s head; she marveled at the lack of light pollution in Johto. It was truly a country of nature.

 

Dawn hiked her way back to Violet City, collapsing on her bed in the motel room she’d rented out. A sudden wave of exhaustion hit her now that she could finally relax.

 

_What a day._

 

+++

 

Dawn awoke the next morning rejuvenated. She stretched, cooked breakfast, took her time to wake up and get ready for the day. For the first time in a year, she was the one determining her schedule.

 

She stepped out of the motel office later that morning, slinging her bag across her shoulder. The sky was bright and blue as ever, long, thin clouds stretching across it. One of them was vaguely shaped like a Linoone.

 

Taking a glance at her DexNav, Dawn realized that there was a Gym in this city, and, naturally, an entire League to conquer. She rubbed her chin, and then made her way to the Pokémon Center, wtihdrawing her Championship team for the first time in a year. Outside, she tossed one Ball out, releasing her starter, the formidable Torterra.

 

The grass Pokémon shook its head, as if waking up from a long sleep. Dawn crouched in front of it and smiled, rubbing its head gently.

 

“I know it’s been a long time, and I’m sorry about that,” she said, sighing in content as Torterra leaned into her hand.

 

Taking on a brand new League challenge sounded like the perfect next step.

 

After all, she had all the time in the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew.
> 
> So here's this, a retelling of the Sinjoh Ruins Arceus event that took seven months for me to finish. What I really wanted to do with it was flesh it out and make it feel weighty, real, illustrate it as the monumental event that I think it should be. The in-game event takes, at most, eight minutes if you really lollygag. THe cinematic is bizarre, with a lot of real-world images flashing by as Arceus uses the Mystri Stage to recreate one of the Creation Trio. These sorts of bonus events that are unlocked by event Pokémon have fallen by the wayside since they were last used in Black and White, and the Generation IV games (Diamond/Pearl, Platinum, and HeartGold/SoulSilver) really knocked it out of the park in this regard. This event and the Celebi time-travel event are the two best in the entire series, in my opinion. The mysticism of this event really resonated with me, and I tried my best to expand on that while keeping the core of the event intact.
> 
> On the references to Arceus smiting Giratina into oblivion, those are mainly filling in the sort of background necessary for the story to work the way I wanted it to. It takes the relatively simplistic stories of these games and fleshes them out to have stakes and consequences that you don't really see in the games, because you need to catch 'em all, so they can't be obliterated for real. The idea of Giratina losing control and giving in to its ambitions really interested me, as well as the idea of Dialga and Palkia being collateral damage, to illustrate the power gap between them and Giratina, and subsequently the power gap between Giratina and Arceus, who imparted its Judgment on Giratina and wiped it out without breaking a sweat. I'd imagine that would be pretty traumatizing for an eleven-year-old to witness, or even a sixteen-year-old, as I aged up Dawn to make it a little bit more plausible that she could have such a pivotal role in a war between gods.
> 
> I might come back to this and flesh out the Platinum conflict referenced in the story, but this was exhausting to write as it is, and I'd like to let it sit for a while before revisiting it. Thanks for reading regardless.


End file.
